Breaking In The Habit

Some Heavy Stuff This Week

What Happens When A Priest Loses His Faith?

The television show House is about curmudgeonly who is incredible at solving rare cases of diseases… and also hates everyone. Including God. In the episode that Fr. Patrick and I reviewed, he’s met his match. Not only is his patient a priest who claims to have had a vision of Jesus, this priest has lost his faith. Oh, and he’s been accused to sexual misconduct with a minor. This is not a funny episode… but it is quite powerful.

The Best “Sports” Movie of All Time

Field of Dreams is a classic. Which is why it made it onto our podcast this semester, a list of all-time classics. But is it a “sports” movie? Fr. Tito will split hairs and Fr. Casey will present a wild fan theory about the movie.

What Gives the Catholic Church the Right??

There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of Christian denominations in the world. And yet, the Catholic Church claims to be the “One, True Church.” Where does that sense of authority come from? Let me tell you, it’s the most fascinating thing I’ve ever produced on this channel. Seriously. You don’t want to miss this video.

Helpful Resources About the COVID Vaccines

While COVID vaccines have been around for almost a year now, there still seems to be confusion about its moral usage. I still see it online all the time, people claiming it is it immoral because of its connection to abortion. I made a video last December about the Catholic Church’s take on moral cooperation with evil, but I’ve found these article helpful as well.

Anti-Vaccine Catholics Break Moral Theology Principles

12 Things Less-Remote Cooperation in Evil Than COVID Vaccines

Hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for subscribing to the newsletter!

Peace and good,

Fr. Casey

Double Feature!

The Chosen is great, but not perfect

Sometimes, you’ve just got a lot to say. That was the case this week when I decided to share a problem I had with the hit TV show The Chosen. The more I wrote, the more I realized it was going to take more than one video to fit it in, and so the only logical thing to do was split it up! Enjoy your two part reflection.

The Godfather is cinema gold. Just don’t make me watch it.

You heard me right. I don’t enjoy watching The Godfather. I think it’s an incredible film! It deserves every award it’s received! There’s a lot I like about it and want to study. But I don’t go to the movies for technical details and study. But don’t worry, in this week’s podcast, Fr. Tito yells at me like you want to right now.

TikTok can be wholesome

If you know anything about TikTok, you know that it can be a dumpster fire sometimes. There is a lot on that platform that no on should be watching! That being said, there are some great creators out there making wholesome content worth watching. In this week’s Upon Friar Review, Fr. Patrick and I look at @Ariel.fitz, a Christian who makes light of many of life’s difficulties.

From the vault

Periodically, I’d like to dig back into the early days of making video and remember something from the past. As we remember the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks this weekend, I offer this short reflection from 2016.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Fr. Casey, OFM

Going Back to the Classics

(The following is an email form of this week’s newsletter, stripped of its original formatting. If you would like to view it in its original form, click here.)

The Classic of Classics: Casablanca (1942)

I’ll admit it: up until last week, I had never seen Casablanca. In my mind, it’s old. It’s in black and white. The people who always say, “Oh, you have to see it are always the snobbiest. I just never saw a reason to watch it when the film industry had advanced so much over the years.

Let me tell you, I was wrong. If you’ve never seen it, check it out immediately! Fr. Tito and I are big fans. There is a reason that it is the first in our “Classics” theme this year on Everyday Liminality.

Hypocrisy, Old and New

Casablanca wasn’t the only near-ancient thing I looked at this week. On Breaking in the Habit, I took a trip down memory lane to look at the famous 1987 apology from Jimmy Swaggart, a man known for his hypocrisy. What do situations like his tell us about our own lives? A ton. If you’re unfamiliar with the idea of moral licensing, you’re going to want to watch this video.

A Terrible Movie of Biblical Proportions

Going furthest back of all, Fr. Patrick and I look at one of the oldest stories known to humanity, the flood. In this week’s Upon Friar Review, we look at the 2007 flop, Evan Almighty. Falling short of its predecessor, Bruce Almighty, this sequel has some laughs and a few lessons to take from it, but it’s ultimately a shallow work of Hollywood.

News?

Let’s see… a few odds and ends to share this week.

After 6 years on Breaking In The Habit and a little less than 1 on Upon Friar Review, I had two videos hit 1 million views this past week. What a crazy thing to think about, that things I made have been viewed over a million times. Very humbling to see!

From Twitter, I thought this was a pretty good experience worth sharing. Maybe we could all do a little better to work on the corporal works of mercy in our area, ensuring that everyone has the dignity of body.

I volunteer at a shelter once a week, working the shower station.

It’s amazing to see the transformation people go through after a shower. Not just cleaner, but more relaxed and far nicer. Being clean is so tied to dignity and respect, an absolutely necessary service.

— Fr. Casey, OFM (@caseyofm) August 30, 2021

Sadly, there was a casualty this week in the Franciscan family… My habit. As many of you know, our habits are often handed down to us by friars who have lived before us, which means that they usually aren’t in the best shape. Sitting down yesterday, I got my hem caught on something, and it ripped quite a huge hole. I have a second habit (which is actually in worse shape but was made with greater original quality) and this habit might be salvageable, but we’ll see…

Until next week, Peace and good!

Fr. Casey

Welcome to the Newsletter!

Hi all! I hope you great summer and are looking forward to more content from Breaking In The Habit!

As I reflected on the changes that have taken place over the years, I realized that the idea of a “blog” had fallen to the wayside years ago when I started posting reflections on YouTube. I continued to post on the blog whenever a new video or podcast would come out, sometimes giving some behind-the-scenes information, other times just rewriting part of the script. It was tedious, as it never really offered anything new, and I often forgot to do it. Sorry about that.

It’s for this reason that I’ve decided to reformat how I use this site. Instead of a traditional blog, it will serve as a weekly newsletter, hosting all of the week’s content in one place. Look for an email each Saturday morning for videos, podcasts, and news from Breaking In The Habit!

Are you in control of your life?

This was the question I had in this week’s YouTube reflection. Have I gotten to where I am because of my own decisions, or are there other forces as work? Some call it luck, I call it providence.

New Season of Everyday Liminality… with a theme!

Last year, you may have noticed that Tito and I reviewed a lot of movies from the 90s. This was entirely on accident, but made for a great finale episode! Thinking about it over the summer, we decided we wanted to pursue that idea a bit further, and came up with a new idea for this semester. Listen to the trailer below, and look forward to new episodes each week.

The Chosen is back, and so are we!

Last season, Fr. Patrick and I reviewed the first season of the hit show The Chosen. Over the summer, new episodes were released and we’ve had a chance to view them all. Now, what do we think? See for yourself below.

What a summer is was!

If you weren’t following my instagram over the summer, you missed quite a few incredible pictures. In my tour across the US, I visited Cleveland, Nashville, New York, St. Louis, Longview, Dallas, Denver, Seattle, and Houston. I saw some incredible churches and hiked some breathtaking mountains. Here are just a few of my favorites, but be sure to check them out yourself!

News

No major news to report here, yet… but I did post a teaser for something coming soon. I’m happy to almost announce something new coming to the Breaking In The Habit family of media. Look for more information shortly, but in the meantime, here’s a trailer to something coming September 27.

Fixing Boring Homilies

I may be the one giving the homily each week, but this wasn’t always the case. As someone who studied for many years in religious life, I have heard my fair share of homilies… including quite a few terrible ones. In this video, I’d like to offer my take on why that is, and suggest three things that preachers can do to improve their preaching.